Schwarzman Tells CNBC He Paid 53% in Personal Income Taxes

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP Chairman Stephen
Schwarzman said he paid an effective personal income tax rate of
53 percent last year and he would favor a flat tax.

Schwarzman was taxed at 36 percent by the U.S. and 17
percent by state and local governments, he said today in a CNBC
interview. He said the U.S. should levy a flat tax as part of
comprehensive reform.

“I’m not feeling undertaxed,” he said. “Tax reform is an
important issue. You have to have an inherent sense of
fairness.”

Schwarzman was paid a $350,000 salary and no bonus last
year, the company said in a February filing with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. His share of the firm’s
projected profits increased by $6.39 million during 2010.

About $399.2 million worth of Blackstone stock held by
Schwarzman vested last year, and the value of his unvested stock
was $544.7 million at the end of 2010, the filing said.

He was ranked 169th on Forbes magazine’s list of the
world’s richest people earlier this year, with an estimated net
worth of $5.9 billion.